Lent Photo A Day #27: Wilderness

"Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ² And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry."

Matthew 4: 1-2

No believer can fully avoid the wilderness experience — it is the path we must all travel.  It can take the form of depression… a crisis of faith… or one or more traumatic life events, of which the list is endless. It is not a joyful time. It is a time when we feel alone, deserted, and dying of spiritual thirst in the midst of a debilitating spiritual draught. There is not much solace in a wilderness experience, but it should bring some comfort to us to realize that every believer is subjected to such encounters. All true saints go through a wilderness experienced in their life; some more than others. Spiritual dryness, or the wilderness experience, is God’s way of getting us to exercise our faith even when there is little feedback or affirmation or emotional joy. In the wilderness we are not being punished — we are being tested, and our faith is being strengthened. (Dr. D. W. Ekstrand)